Mass walk «Cùng Việt Nam tiến bước 2026» (Forward with Vietnam)

   Trần Quốc Nghiễn, the seafront road people in Ha Long usually stroll in the evening, goes to pedestrians at dawn this Sunday: four thousand people in red star-emblazoned shirts set off from Hòn Gai beach and walk along the bay towards the centre. Anyone can join the column — there are no fees and no selection here.

   For the second year running the walk is run by Nhân Dân newspaper and the Ministry of Public Security, this time marking the 81st anniversary of the August Revolution and of National Day. The goal is stated as a number: 10 billion steps nationwide and a Guinness World Record claim for the largest number of localities joining an environmental walk at once. Guinness representatives are coming to verify the result in person, and the data has to be certified by an independent party.

   How the morning works in Quảng Ninh province:

• — at six the flag ceremony takes place simultaneously in 54 communes, wards and special zones and at the main venue, timed to the national flag-raising on Ba Đình Square;
• — straight after the anthem the provincial venue opens on Hòn Gai beach;
• — the column heads along Trần Quốc Nghiễn towards the centre of Hạ Long ward and finishes opposite the Royal hotel.

   About 4,000 people are expected at the main venue: staff from departments and companies, military and police personnel, schoolchildren. The provincial police are preparing separate plans for security, traffic and fire safety — at that hour there will not be a single car on the seafront road.

   A year ago the programme drew 1,112,336 people to live venues across the country, the online counter added another 261 million steps, and the combined total came to about six billion. By the evening of 25 August the programme portal held more than a hundred thousand registrations and almost half a billion steps.

   The distance is short and undemanding: this is a walk, not a race, and the column is full of families with children. Organisers ask people to wear red and trainers, and registering online is not a ticket — it is how your steps reach the national count. The programme also promotes the «Yêu lắm Việt Nam» project, with contactless check-in tags at more than two hundred landmarks around the country, and Ha Long has plenty of them.

   If you have come to the bay for the long weekend, this is the simplest way to see the city from the water and the shore at once and to feel part of it before breakfast.